The Fulham defender Dan Burn has compared Manchester United's playing style to Conference football in Sunday's 2-2 draw with Fulham at Old Trafford.

David Moyes's team made a record 81 crosses yet still failed to win and following the match Burn, 21, who began his career at Darlington, where he played non-league football, said: "I was just saying to the lads that I've never headed that many balls since the Conference. At the end of the day I'm happy for them to play like that.

"We knew that we were going to defend our box well. We were going to keep our back four quite narrow so that we were between the goal and the wingers were going to look after the wide men. They've had plenty of crosses, loads of chances and stuff, but the second goal was quite lucky. I always felt we had something left."

Burn stated that René Meulensteen, the Fulham manager, had prepared the side for United to pepper them with high balls into the area. "We've been working on that in training. I thought it worked well. We knew that was going to happen – once we were dropping further back, that we were going to get more compact and make them play around us because we thought we had the strength in numbers. I'm 6ft 7in. It helps when dealing with those sort of balls."

Of preventing United's vaunted attacking trio of Juan Mata, Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney from playing through his side, Burn added: "That shows you how well we've defended. They didn't have many chances. They're still amazing players – on another day they could have had however many, but we defended really well."